The provision of social services in Australia has changed
dramatically in recent decades, raising a range of important questions about financial and
democratic accountability: ‘who benefits’, ‘who suffers’ and ‘who
decides’. This book explores these developments through rich case
studies of a diverse set of social policy domains. The case studies
demonstrate a range of effects of marketisation, including the impact on
the experience of consumer engagement with social service systems, on
the distribution of social advantage and disadvantage, and on the
democratic steering of social policy.